4 ms·
>The problem is that doing so is, I expect, harder for the human than writing the code in the first place. Programming is mostly about writing boilerplate code
by kgeist 5y ago
>The problem is that doing so is, I expect, harder for the human than writing the code in the first place.
Programming is mostly about writing boilerplate code using well-known architectural patterns and technologies, nothing extraordinary but which takes time (at least in my experience). If I can describe a project in a few abstract words, and the AI generates the rest, it can considerably improve my productivity, and I don't think it's going to be harder to review than code written by a junior dev who also makes mistakes and doesn't usually get it right on the first try anyway (given the AI is pretrained to know what kind of architecture we prefer). I can envision a future where programmers are basically AI operators who iterate on the requirements with the client/stakeholders and let AI do the rest. It looks like we're almost there (with GitHub Copilot and all), and I think it's enough to "revolutionize" the industry, because it changes the way we approach problems and makes us far more productive with less effort.
- rakejake 5y agoIf a junior dev writes truly head-scratching code, you could ping that person and ask why they wrote this line a certain way, as opposed to a more straight-forward way. Correct me if I'm wrong but you can't ask an ML model to do that (yet).
- kgeist 5y agoTrue. But is it really important "why"? I think what's more important is whether we can correct AI's output in a way that makes it learn to avoid writing similar head-scratching code in the future.
- rakejake 5y agoUnless the AI can fix the bug itself, a human is going to have to explore the AI-generated code. The AI cannot help you here and you are going to have to figure out the "why" all by yourself. It will become incredibly easy to generate code with prompts but fixing any problem is going to be a pain. The "Tech Debt" would be astronomical.
- daxfohl 5y agoIn ten years ML models may be "thinking" the same thing about us. Our "more understandable" code is full of inefficiencies and bugs and the bots wonder why we can't see this.